Two-part electrical connectors



11111? 1963 .1. J. CHAMBERLAIN ETAL 3,094,365

TWO-PART ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS Filed Sept. 26. 1960 FIG.2

INVENTORS m Z Wm w w m Mm Z W %m m h W m M J a m United States Patent 3,094,365 TWO-PART ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS John Joseph Chamberlain, Benington, and Charles Andrew Ward, Stevenage, England, assignors to The English Electric Company Limited, London, England, a

British company Filed Sept. 26, 1960, Ser. No. 58,411 6 Claims. (Cl. 339---75) This invention relates to two-part electrical connectors.

According to this invention, in a two-part electrical connector having at least one contact pin, a cooperating resilient contact sleeve and a clamping member, the contact pin has a neck, which, when the pin and sleeve are fully in engagement, is surrounded by a portion of the resilient contact sleeve and the clamping member is provided with an aperture through which the contact sleeve passes, the walls of the aperture and sleeve having cooperating tapered portions, so that on movement of the clamping member parallel to the axis of the pin and sleeve from the released position to the clamped position, the walls of the aperture in the clamping member act on the sleeve to compress the said portion of the sleeve around the neck formed on the pin.

Although the invention may be applied to connectors having only a single pin and sleeve contact pair it is more particularly applicable to multi-point connectors, such as may be used for the interconnection of electronic or communication apparatus, in which it is desired to combine consistently good electrical contact between the pins and the sleeves with ease of separation and engagement of the two parts of the connector. In such a construction the clamping member will of course be common to all the contact pairs, each contact sleeve passing through a separate aperture in the clamping member.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section through a pair of the mating contact parts of an electrical connector with the contact clamping means released, and

FIG. 2 shows a view similar to FIG. 1 with the contact clamping means in the clamped position.

The electrical connector is of the multi-point twopart type, the two parts being respectively the plug part and the socket part. The general arrangement may be similar to that of the connector described in co-pendin-g patent application of John Joseph Chamberlain for Two-Part Electrical Connectors, Serial No. 832,774 filed August 10, 1959, now Patent No. 2,998,588, with which the connector to be described has certain features in common.

Referring to the drawings, the connector comprises a pair of body member 40, 41 mounted each within a suitable casing which includes means for mechanically looking together the two parts of the connector, and provided respectively with a plurality of contact pins 42 and contact sleeves 43.

The pin '42 is a solid pin of circular cross-section having a tip portion 44 of uniform diameter separated from its root, or point of emergence from the body member 40, by a neck formed by a reverse-tapered section 45. When the pin is inserted into the contact sleeve 43, as shown in the figures, the open end of the contact sleeve reaches approximately to the point of smallest diameter of the tapered part 45 of the pin. The sleeve is sufliciently thinwalled to be resilient, and is provided at its open end with a pair of diametrically-opposed cuts which enable the terminal portion of the sleeve to be bent over the shoulder formed in the pin by the junction of the constant-diameter portion 44 and the tapered portion 45 to provide a positive mechanical lock between the individual contacts. This is achieved through the agency of a mov- 3,094,365 Patented June 18, 1963 able clamping plate 46, mounted between the two parts of the connector and secured to the part of the connector carrying the contact sleeves 43. The clamping member is capable of limited axial movement relative to the contact sleeves, which pass each through an aperture in the clam-ping member corresponding in diameter to the root diameter of the sleeve. The sleeve wall is thickened as the open end of the sleeve is approached, as indicated at 47, so that on movement of the clamping member 46 from the released position shown in FIG. 1 to the clamped position shown in FIG. 2 the walls of the uniform bores in the clamping member act on the cam surface so formed to compress the open end of the sleeve about the neck formed in the pin.

In order to increase the electrical surface leakage path between adjacent contacts of each part of the connector, a circular depression 48 is formed in the surface of each body member surrounding the projecting contact. A circular wall 49 may be provided for the same purpose on the rear face of the body member. Similarly a circular wall 50 projects from each face of the clamping member 46 around the aperture through which a pair of contacts passes. The walls 50 and the depressions 48 formed in the body members have complementary profiles so that in either position of the clamping member it nests to gether with one of the body members, as shown in the drawing for the two positions of the clamping member: the overlapping complementary parts of the other body member and the clamping member form flash barriers between the exposed parts of adjacent contact pairs.

Engagement of the two parts of the connector thus consists in mating together the corresponding contact pins and sleeves and locking the individual contacts together by movement of the clamping member 46 from its released to its clamped position: this movement of the clamping member may be made automatically by the action of the means, already referred to, for mechanically locking together the two parts of the connector, a separate and deliberate locking or unlocking movement of the clamping member being unnecessary.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by letters Patent is:

1. A two-part electrical connector comprising on one part thereof at least one contact pin of predetermined cross-section having a tip portion of predetermined shape, a root, and a tapered portion between said tip portion and said root to form a neck, the cross-sectional area of said tapered portion being less than the cross-sectional area of said tip portion, said connector comprising on the other part thereof a resilient sleeve having an open end cooperating with and receiving said tip portion within said sleeve at said open end, said sleeve gradually increasing in thickness and being flared outwardly toward said open end, said connector further including a clamping member positioned about said sleeve and relatively movable along said sleeve to deform the thickened portion of said sleeve inwardly from a pivot point on said sleeve into said neck, said thickened portion of said sleeve contacting said neck, thereby to lock said pin and sleeve positively against disengagement.

2. A two-part electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein the pin has a circular cross-section and has a tip portion of uniform diameter separated from its root by a reverse tapered portion forming the said. neck.

3. A two-part electrical connector according to claim 2, wherein the sleeve is of circular cross-section and has at least one longitudinal cut in its wall extending from its open end that receives the pin.

4. A two-part electrical connector according to claim 3, wherein the said cut or each said cut extends from the open end of the sleeve to a point which, when the pin and sleeve are fully in engagement, is adjacent the uniformdiarneter tip portion of the pin.

5. A two-part electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein the contact sleeve has a substantially uniform internal cross-section in its unstressed state, the said outwardly-taperedlouter surface of the sleeve being formed by a progressively-thickened portion of the sleeve wall.

6. A two-part electrical connector according to claim 5, wherein the thickened portion of the sleeve wall occurs lnear theopen end' of the sleeve, the clamping member moving away fi'om the rootiof the sleeve and t0- w azrds its open end in movingfrom its released to its clamped position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Stout Aug. 9, 1938 Wall Oct. 8, 19'46 -Burtt June 27, 1950 Smiley Ian. 10, 1956 Bissell et a1 June 19, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany May 14, 1920 

1. A TWO-PART ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR COMPRISING ON ONE PART THEREOF AT LEAST ONE CONTACT PIN OF PREDETERMINED CROSS-SECTION HAVING A TIP PORTION OF PREDETERMINED SHAPE, A ROOT, AND A TAPERED PORTION BETWEEN SAID TIP PORTION AND SAID ROOT TO FORM A NECK, THE CROSS-SECTIONAL AREA OF SAID TAPERED PORTION BEING LESS THAN THE CROSS-SECTIONAL AREA OF SAID TIP PORTION, SAID CONNECTOR COMPRISING ON THE OTHER PART THEREOF A RESILIENT SLEEVE HAVING AN OPEN END COOPERATING WITH AND RECEIVING SAID TIP PORTION WITHIN SAID SLEEVE AT SAID OPEN END, SAID SLEEVE GRADUALLY INCREASING IN THICKNESS AND BEING FLARED OUTWARDLY TOWARD SAID OPEN END, SAID CONNECTOR FURTHER INCLUDING A CLAMPING MEMBER POSITIONED ABOUT SAID SLEEVE AND RELATIVELY MOVABLE ALONG SAID SLEEVE TO DEFORM THE THICKENED PORTION OF SAID SLEEVE INWARDLY FROM A PIVOT POINT ON SAID SLEEVE INTO SAID NECK, SAID THICKENED PORTION OF SAID SLEEVE CONTACTING SAID NECK, THEREBY TO LOCK SAID PIN AND SLEEVE POSITIVELY AGAINST DISENGAGEMENT. 